Strict training regimen, father's sacrifice and Unnati Hooda's passion led to victory in Odisha Open 2022

ROHTAK: The success of 14-year-old

Unnati Hooda

who became the youngest Indian to win the Super 100 event at Odisha Open 2022 in Cuttack by beating her opponent Smit Toshniwal in straight two sets (21-18, 21-11), might seem potluck to some but that did not come without paying the price.

Unnati started playing at the age of 7-years in the house street outsider in Bharat colony here. Her father

Upkar Hooda

, who spotted her talent in racket sports, got her admitted in neighbouring government badminton academy in 2014. She met

Parvesh Kumar

, government badminton coach at Chhotu Ram stadium.

Every morning,

Unnati

would reach 15 minutes before the training at 5 am, said Parvesh Kumar. "I am ready to accept anything but not indiscipline. If a player misses one day without informing, he/she is suspended from participating for next three days," added Parvesh Kumar.

After Unnati won tournaments in

Junior Badminton Championship

, it had become difficult for her father Upkar (who is Ph.D in management) to continue his teaching job.

"My mornings used to start at 4 am and after training session of Unnati at 8.30 am, I would leave for my job and then again join her in the evening (4 pm till 7 pm). When it came to making a choice between sports career of my daughter and my own career, I chose the former", reminds Upkar Hooda.

Sharing his experience, Upkar said that he too wanted to make his career in badminton but his parents never allowed him to do so. "I did not let that happen with my daughter as times have changed and the victory of Odisha Open 2022 is a sense of achievement in the manner that I took the right decision by letting my daughter choose career in sports," added Upkar.

Doodh, dahi ka khana
Upkar, who always accompanied his teenage daughter in badminton tournaments said that Unnati always drew her strength from milk, curd, paneer, ghee, butter and never tasted any non-veg dish.

"When we would go for tournaments outside Haryana, we used to carry our own portable electric induction chullah, flour, ghee made ladoos, to avoid hotel and restaurant food. We would find a place where we could cook and give Unnati home-made food during her matches. It really boosted her performance-which otherwise used to upset her stomach and impact her performance", said Upkar.

South dominance
Upkar Hooda said that people would joke about how could a player of government academy ever achieve anything significant as badminton needs expensive coaching in private academies located in Hyderabad and Bangalore.

"We were told that people from Haryana have done well in power sports like kabbadi and wrestling but racket sports are dominated by South Indians as they have state-of-the art infrastructure and international coaches. I believed in hard work and Unnati's coach would work extra hours. We also learnt many things through YouTube and implemented the techniques to beat our rivals," he added.

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